Fish-in Cycling

[LittleMissDynamite]

i found nothing wrong with this post but as i read the suggestions of others i realized that BTT was right. I'm not looking at this like a beginner. i still think this is a great thread tho and it should be pinned.

hey rabbut what are the chances of resubmitting this as a finished product when all the bases have been covered? i'd be glad to help.

 

[LittleMissDynamite]

Ahhaaaa.Kerching.Penny finaly drops.I am a beginner and thought i had finaly understood the nitrogen cycle.I cycled my new tank with advice from the lps or so i thought by simply filling the tank and waiting for the readings to change on my test kit.Of course the levels never changed untill i added the fish.Luckily the four danios i bought were very hardy,poor little mites.I then went through a couple of weeks testing,panicking and changing water.I knew the ammonia and nitrite were poisonous to my fish and spent the next couple of weeks doing 50 percent water changesalmost daily.The tank finaly cycled and i added a couple more fish.Everything went along fine then suddenly i had problems with amonia spikes, fish loss.poorly mollies and guppies and did not understand why.Having sat and read through all this very helpfull advice prior to setting up a new tank at work,i now know what happened.I have loads of babies.Mollies and guppies.Why did this not register before.I would never have dreamed of adding thirty or more fish at once.More fish waste,not enough bacteria to cope with the extra waste.Of course the tank will cycle all over again.I now feel stupid that this did not dawn untill now.It would look obvious to anyone who is not a beginner.The other point i did not fully understand was how quickly the levels could change.Reading these very helpfull post have made this all much clearer to me.Thankyou very much.please do get this pinned.Once the changes as advised are added,it will help newbies like me.

 

[All tanked up]

Blimey.. alot to digest, I'm n ew to the site and wanting to do things properly, but just thought, tank, water fish... yepp finding out now thats all wrong, troule is i am impatient and reading these posts feel foolish..
The Original post was good but still alittle confusing for the Real beginnner who like me just thinks you can get a tank fill it with water and fish and off we go... i Dont think i dare tell you all the things ive done in the last three weeks! I'D be Hung, Drawn and Quarted !

 

[Rhindon]

What to do if your tap water comes out at 2.0 ammonia?

 

[Overload]

What to do if your tap water comes out at 2.0 ammonia?

I would be complaining to the water supplier, it is supposed to be noticeable in drinking water at 1.5ppm (that figure is from the World Health Organization guidelines)

http/whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789241548151_eng.pdf

As a side point in the UK Ammonium is indicator substance and should not exceed 0.5 ppm at the tap, there is no figure for Ammonia

http/dwi.defra.gov.uk/stakeholders/legislation/wqregs2007cons.pdf

 

[Rhindon]

What to do if your tap water comes out at 2.0 ammonia?

I would be complaining to the water supplier, it is supposed to be noticeable in drinking water at 1.5ppm (that figure is from the World Health Organization guidelines)

Ok, but what can I do about this water as far as water changes go?

 

[Overload]

What to do if your tap water comes out at 2.0 ammonia?

I would be complaining to the water supplier, it is supposed to be noticeable in drinking water at 1.5ppm (that figure is from the World Health Organization guidelines)

Ok, but what can I do about this water as far as water changes go?

Maybe see about an R0 kit? I think Prime also turns Ammonia into Ammonium, which is less toxic to fish but is used by the same bacteria, for 48 hours, that might help

 

[Rhindon]

Thanks!

 

[Ozle]

Coming at this from a beginner point of view:

• Putting a line gap between the paragraphs makes it an easier read and makes it look less like a daunting wall of text.
• The explanation of why should come under the first heading, as its a 'What is it' description rather than a 'How to'
• Are you implying you can put fish into your tank straight away if you are doing a fish-in cycle? Because there is no reference to a stage before this.
• Is theonly time you should be doing a water change while doing the fish-in cycle if you get the unnacceptable levels in your tests? Because this is the only reference to water changing in there. Does this mean you don't need to do the weekly changes.
• I would put the de-chlorinate the tap water at the beginning, so it reads as a stage by stage guide, having it in the middle could cause people to miss that bit, or read it too late!
  

(I know request for comments is over 4 years old now, but its still linked in the guide section, so I thought I would give you a complete beginners point of view)

 

[LindseyH]

I second some of that. Bullet points and line gaps between paragraphs would have made this easier for me when I first came to the site.

It's a well written piece and I read it several times. I might have read it fewer times if the information I was searching for was a little more apparent (ie, broken up and/or summarised in a bullet points). AS it stands I kept skim reading it, trying to find the part where it said x, y or z.

 

[boabmac63]

What levels do you want ure ph and nitrate ect so i know a cant find out anywer

 

[phoenix2081]

I am not too sure on PH but I believe nitrate is between 20-80 ppm is good.

I am sure a user with mroe experiance can give you the answer.

Mitch - Phoenix

 

[fluttermoth]

It's best to leave the pH as it comes out of your tap; it can be very difficult to change it and swings in pH value are more harmful to fish than living in a different pH than they came from.

You should know your pH and hardness before stocking so you can chose appropriate fish

 

[little hippo]

i am confused on what i should do. i was referred to this post.
i have a 10 gallon tank and after 24 hrs put in 5 zebra danios.
i just found out i should have cycled my tank. So besides get a test kit, what else do i need to do to get this cycled with my fish in there? It my 1st tank ever.

 

[fluttermoth]

You need to test the water for ammonia and nitrite every day and do as many water changes as neccessary to make sure neither of those go above 0.25ppm.